Gone So Long
Description
Cathartic, affirming, and steeped in the empathy and precise observations of character for which Dubus is celebrated, Gone So Long explores how the wounds of the past afflict the people we become.
Gone So Long is a riveting family drama about an ex-con who did time for murder, the estranged daughter he hasn't seen in forty years, and the grandmother angry enough to kill him. A profound exploration of the struggle between the selves we wish to be, and the ones--shaped by chance and circumstance, as well as character--that we can't escape, it confirms Andre Dubus's reputation as a novelist whose "compassion is unsentimental and unblinking, total and unwavering" (Paul Harding).
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About the Author
Andre Dubus (1936-1999) is considered among the most talented American short stories writers of his generation. Born and raised in Louisiana, he spent his adult life living and teaching in blue-collar mill towns in northern New England.
Dubus's short stories and essays appeared in distinguished literary journals and magazines across the country, and were selected for numerous editions of the Best American Short Stories series, as well as the O. Henry Awards and Pushcart Prize anthologies. Dubus's work earned him MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Jean Stein Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and nominations for a National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize.
In addition to seven collections of stories and novellas, Dubus published one novel and two collections of essays. The award-winning films In the Bedroom and We Don't Live Here Anymore were adapted from his stories.
Dubus is buried in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Reviews
I tore through this haunting novel about people driven by pain beyond the reach of love and forgiveness, and the roads they use as they seek their way back. It hits just the right note at the end, and I'll be thinking about Susan a long time. A hell of a read.--Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment
[Dubus] brings a light touch to questions of morality and justice and moves delicately between seaside New England and swampy Florida, infusing life into the characters in this heartbreaking novel.
Dubus is in his gritty wheelhouse, exploring the question of how we live with our mistakes and whether we can ever stop adding to them.
Dubus evokes a dazzling palette of emotions as he skillfully unpacks the psychological tensions between remorse and guilt, fear and forgiveness, anger and love. Susan, Daniel, and Lois are fully realized and authentic characters who live with pain and heartache while struggling to fill the tremendous void created by the tragedy. Heartrending yet unsentimental, this powerful testament to the human spirit asks what it means to atone for the unforgivable and to empathize with the broken.--Bill Kelly
The people at the heart of this novel feel intensely real. That's because Dubus has the imagination, patience and empathy to make them so.--Kevin Canfield
Andre Dubus III has made a name for himself as a kind of poet of violence--a dubious accolade, to be sure--a writer who vibrantly captures a kind of hardscrabble New England living that's not rough around the edges, it's just rough.--Chloe Schama
